Chapter 2: The Mysterious Little Fruit

What remains the same as his past life on Earth is that in this parallel world, Lin Li is still all alone. What is different is that while Lin Li was a 996 worker on Earth who had worked for two or three years without much in savings, in this parallel world, his late family left him two apartments of over a hundred square meters each and one million yuan in savings.

This inheritance allows him to live comfortably for the rest of his life in this world, even without going out to work for others.

It is precisely because he has this comfortable safety net that, after Lin Li learned his cultivation aptitude was terrible and he could not become a practitioner, he had the confidence to choose to be a carefree salted fish.

……

"Ring-a-ling..."

Just as Lin Li was standing by the window, watching someone in the residential complex exercise with a faint golden spiritual light emanating from their body, the phone on his nightstand rang.

He turned, walked over to the nightstand, leaned down to pick up the phone, and glanced at the name on the caller ID.

"Why is this woman calling so early in the morning?"

"Hello, what is it?" Lin Li answered the phone and asked, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Lin Li, the drain in my kitchen is clogged. Come over and help me clear it quickly." A very pleasant and melodious female voice came from the other end of the line.

"Su Yue, I just cleared that drain for you last week. How did it get clogged again so soon? Besides, I am your landlord, not your personal drain-clearing worker," Lin Li said with dissatisfaction.

"Isn't it the landlord's job to fix problems with a rented house?" Su Yue muttered softly after hearing Lin Li's words.

"If there is a problem with the house, of course you can come to me to solve it, but that doesn't include clearing your kitchen drain or changing burnt-out light bulbs.

Think about it, how many years have I been renting the house to you? Over these years, I've been clearing your drains, changing your light bulbs, and even killing cockroaches.

How many times have I done these trivial chores for you? How can you have the nerve to ask me to do them again? Go find a professional to help you clear the drain." Lin Li said to Su Yue on the other end of the phone.

"I'll cover lunch. I'll cook your favorite boiled fish myself," Su Yue said lightly.

"..." Lin Li was silent for a moment, then said in a flat tone, "Deal... but let me state first, I'm not helping you just to eat your cooking.

I just feel that, besides being landlord and tenant, we are also good friends of many years. If a good friend's drain is clogged, I should help out when I have the time..."

"Mm-hmm, I know, thank you! My cute landlord and good friend," Su Yue said to Lin Li with a giggle.

"Cute? If you don't know how to use adjectives, don't use them. Since when is a man called cute?" Several black lines immediately appeared on Lin Li's forehead as he corrected Su Yue's misuse of the word.

"Yes, yes, yes, I know I was wrong. Can I use 'handsome' next time?" Thinking of the clogged kitchen drain at home, Su Yue immediately changed her tune.

"That's more like it. I'll come over to help you clear the drain after I finish breakfast."

"Mm, make sure to come over early!"

"Got it, that's all for now!"

Lin Li hung up the phone, thinking about how he would get to eat a delicious meal at noon, and his mood suddenly became very pleasant.

It couldn't be helped; he had no talent for cooking in his past life, and after being reborn into this parallel world, he still had no talent for cooking.

Even though he lived alone and cooked often, he still couldn't improve his culinary skills. It was simply unscientific.

On the other hand, his female tenant and good friend—he had never even seen her cook much, so why were her culinary skills so good? Heaven is truly unfair!

……

Breakfast was very simple: two boiled eggs, a piece of bread, and a glass of milk.

After finishing breakfast, Lin Li wanted to enter that small island again to take a look, but he found he couldn't get in. The reason was that his spiritual energy had been exhausted.

Estimating his recovery speed, it would likely take until after ten o'clock at night to fully recover his spiritual energy. It seemed he would have to wait until tonight to enter the island again.

…………

On the mysterious small island, after Lin Li was forced to leave due to the exhaustion of his spiritual energy, the two-meter-tall tree in the center of the island suddenly bloomed with a faint golden light.

The vast, white mist on the surrounding water began to surge when the small tree bloomed with the faint golden light.

This white mist churned violently and then transformed into wisps of spiritual energy.

The faint golden light blooming from the small tree in the center of the island became increasingly dazzling, and the spiritual energy transformed from the white mist rushed rapidly toward the glowing tree.

A few minutes later, the faint golden light on the small tree vanished, and the churning white mist around it returned to calm.

Everything seemed to have returned to its previous state, but if you looked closely, you would find that there was an extra bright red fruit on the small tree in the center of the island.

This fruit was as red as fire, and from time to time, a faint golden light would flash across it.

…………

The sun was bright, the sky was cloudless; it was truly a beautiful day!

After finishing breakfast, Lin Li set off for Su Yue's home. The apartment he rented to Su Yue was not far from the complex where he lived, about a ten-minute walk away.

Walking slowly along the road, Lin Li observed the hurried passersby around him.

These passersby were all workers rushing to their companies. Looking at their hurried appearance, Lin Li couldn't help but think

"If I didn't have that million in savings and the two apartments, I would also be busy like them, struggling for a living."

The technology of Blue Star was almost the same as the world Lin Li was reborn from, and the urban landscape was nearly identical.

If it weren't for the two people arguing not far ahead, both of whom had faint golden spiritual light emanating from their bodies, Lin Li might have thought he was still in his previous world.

"Do you even know how to drive? Who rides an electric scooter on the sidewalk?"

"I ride on the sidewalk every time I pass this section of the road, so what are you going to do about it?"

"What am I going to do? You almost hit me; you need to apologize."

"Apologize? You're overthinking it! If you hadn't suddenly jumped out, I wouldn't have almost hit you.

On the contrary, you should be apologizing to me. I fell down just now trying to avoid you; look, I scraped the skin on my hand."

The two young men argued louder and louder. Passersby who saw this subconsciously stopped in their tracks, turning into spectators as they watched the two men shouting at each other.

…………